As editor in chief of Redmond magazine, I should be embarrassed to admit that I don't yet use Vista. In fact, I used to feel that way.
But the more I hear from real IT experts (translation: you, the Redmond Report reader), the more I think I'm actually on the leading edge by sticking with good, old XP Service Pack 2. My printers and external hard drives still work, and it has performance I can live with.
Vista users are having less luck. Hardware drivers are lagging behind the operating system like me in the Boston marathon (I'm not exactly svelte).
Many believe a service pack will do the trick, but service packs are for bugs and performance. Drivers are an entirely different matter. Give some news about Vista by writing dbarney@redmondmag.com!
Learn more from this fine report from the Associated Press.OneCare Upgrade Prepped
Like Vista, OneCare has seen its share of problems. This consumer security bundle was roundly criticized by users (including a Redmond magazine staffer who had no end of problems) for installation troubles and what some claim is substandard anti-virus protection.
Now, Microsoft is prepping OneCare 2.0, which can protect multiple computers and offers centralized backup for networked computers.
OneCare 1.0 might not have been God's gift to computing (for me, that would be craigslist), but name one 1.0 product from Microsoft that has been top-notch. Word, Excel, Windows, even NT had growing pains.
Because Microsoft is such a patient company, OneCare (version 3.0, at least) is still something that Symantec et al should be very worried about.
Citizens on Journalism Patrol
The rise of blogs was supposed to fundamentally reshape the world of journalism. No longer would you need a degree from j-school (of course, I have the rare honor of a degree in Marxian economics, which is now useful only in North Korea and Cambridge, Mass.!).
No, news was to be driven by those closest to it: real, actual citizens.
Unfortunately, these citizen journalism sites were about as effective as Eugene Tackleberry on patrol.
The latest casualty is community news Web site Backfence, which recently called it quits, citing "business issues." What could those business issues be? No traffic and no ads?
Live CRM To Go Live
Those who think that Microsoft has no Software as a Service strategy (SaaS+S) must not have heard of Dynamics Live CRM, a hosted version of Microsoft's current CRM offering announced last week at Microsoft's annual partner conference.
Now, before you get too excited, I have a bone to pick with the name. Microsoft's original CRM product was called, I believe, simply "Microsoft CRM." Then it became "Microsoft Dynamics CRM." Now that everything that has anything to do with the Web is somehow called Live, it's now "Microsoft Dynamics Live CRM." That sure rolls off the old tongue!
Of course, if you are really hardcore, you can buy Microsoft Dynamics Live CRM Professional or Microsoft Dynamics Live CRM Enterprise!
Interestingly, but not surprisingly, Microsoft is undercutting Salesforce.com on price by a pretty big hunk.
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